In addition to today's longish piece on incompetence over at the Department of Justice, I want to flag another piece of news that surprised and disappointed me today. Tulsi Gabbard was the least-qualified US Director of National Intelligence in the history of the country. She's announced
On May 19, the US Department of Justice announced that it had settled a lawsuit brought by Donald Trump, two of his sons and his real estate company against the US Treasury and the IRS. The settlement included the creation of a fund of $1,776,000,000 to be
For the past decade or so, I've donated money and time to political efforts that I support. I've done that locally, but also nationally, giving time to and canvassing for issues and candidates here in California and in other states. That's landed me on
Thousands are dead after more than five weeks of Donald Trump's war on Iran. Most of those are Iranians, including heavy civilian casualties due to attacks on infrastructure and at least one school. But the death toll includes members of the US military, and civilians and military personnel
I wrote recently about plans for Trump Social to merge with a fusion energy company. It's a weird deal – the two businesses are in different markets building different products for very different customers! – but after thinking about it for a while, I understood the motivation. The Trump Media
News broke this past week or so on two fronts that I want to cover here. Immigration On the American television series Law and Order, each episode begins with a narrator intoning, "In the criminal justice system, the people are represented by two separate yet equally important groups: the
Mixing my media here, but my brother-in-law Rick Galusha has been doing a radio show in Omaha, Nebraska for forty years on Americana and roots music. He and I just recorded a show on Bruce Springsteen's new song, Streets of Minneapolis. You can give the show a listen
Regime violence in Minnesota is moving fast. DHS' deployment of ICE to the Twin Cities was aimed, it claimed, at capturing and removing Somali criminals. There's no evidence of widespread criminality, no apparent success in arresting and imprisoning and deporting genuine bad guys. You can be sure
Here's some of what's happened so far this year: A masked agent of the Federal government shot an unarmed mother, a citizen, in the head in Minneapolis. She and her family are being investigated, but the shooter isn't. The US invaded, then expropriated lots
An unusual story broke this week: Donald Trump's social media company is merging with a 27-year-old business that is working on technology to generate energy using nuclear fusion. The investor presentation is – interesting? On its face, the combination makes no sense. The two businesses work on completely different
It's been a month and a day since the US federal government crossed from its 2025 into its 2026 fiscal year. Because there was no statutory authority to keep spending money on October 1, the government shut down. I wrote about the legislative and budgetary details back then.
I joined the No Kings march in Oakland, California on Saturday. Word is there were more than 10,000 of us who marched from Wilma Chan Park through downtown to the Lake Merritt waterfront on a gorgeous Bay Area autumn day. The estimates I've seen of total participation
I loved this essay by A.R. Moxon. You might, too.
The US federal government operates on a fiscal year that begins on October 1 of each year and ends on September 30. By the first day of October, the Congress must have passed a budget, or the government isn't able to pay for stuff. Sometimes, the Congress can&
I started this blog as a space to talk about important issues. I wanted to share my socially liberal, progressive views. I wanted to talk about national and global finance and how we could invest in the society we ought to be. Today I want to do something more basic.
Content warning: This is a post about an actual child suicide. You may well prefer to stop reading here. I've resisted writing about this for some time. I don't want to appear to trade on the tragedy that befell Adam Raine and his family. And, frankly,
Beginning more than a month ago, Donald Trump sent the US Marines and National Guard into Los Angeles. He claimed that they were necessary to protect immigration agents working for ICE, rounding up and jailing people who may or may not have been in the country illegally. Last week, he
Hey gang, Every August, I visit DonorsChoose to find some schoolteachers to help out. Lots of educators post there about projects they want to do or things they need for their classrooms as kids come back to school. I pick a few and fund them up in gratitude for how
Swinging the spotlight, for a moment, from politics to big tech. I upgraded my mother-in-law's internet service recently. As part of that upgrade, I installed a new wifi access point with better security. That meant changing the network name, which of course meant all the stuff in the
I've been, in recent elections, a pretty reliable supporter – donor, canvasser, voter – for Democratic candidates running for office locally and in state and national races. About four months ago, I adopted a new policy: I will make no more contributions, of my time or my votes or my
Quick comments on two issues of the moment before I get into the post I mean to write this morning. One: Molly White maintains an up-to-date digest of all the payments made by, and favors done for, cryptocurrency players interacting with the Trump administration. The PAC donations bug me but
The 27th season of the animated television show South Park premiered on Wednesday night. The show has always been, uh, edgy. I don't watch it regulary, but the new season opener has gotten so much attention that I streamed it last night. The backdrop to the episode is
My abiding patriotism struggled, yesterday, with my deep disappointment in the American politicians and institutions of the moment. I began my day by re-reading the Declaration of Independence, as I do every year (and boy, are the charges against King George III germane just now!). I gathered with friends and
We interrupt the budget drama to bring you this immigration update: Allison Gill has published a story on the Mueller, She Wrote blog on an amended filing by lawyers for Kilmar Garcia Abrego, alleging widespread torture of inmates at the facility, including Abrego himself. I wrote about Abrego's